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Major retailers are beginning their online sales even earlier this year, with M&S
and John Lewis among them. We round-up the clearance sales and the bargains
on offer.

M&S and John Lewis will today take the unprecedented step of shifting
their online sales forward to Christmas Eve as competition among retailers
intensifies.

Online sales have crept forward in recent years as the number of consumers
searching for bargains over Christmas has exploded.

Christmas Day has been the main battleground in recent years but this year M&S
will begin discounting at midday today.

It has bought "Christmas Eve sales" search advertising slots on
Google (NasdaqGS: GOOG - news) in an attempt to draw online consumers along with an array of other
terms shoppers are likely to be searching for today.

John Lewis, meanwhile, will start its online sale at 5pm today while Currys/PC
World will follow at 7pm.

Other retailer have already launched a sell-off of stock.

Catalogue store Argos is already offering up to 60pc off on selected lines,
such as coffee machines, half-price toys and 40pc off some TVs. A Hitachi (Other OTC: HTHIY - news) 24
inch television has been reduced from £249.99 to £149.99.

Debenhams (Other OTC: DBHSY - news) began its sale on Saturday. It is offering up to 60pc off on
furniture with a 'Paris' brown leather sofa reduced from £2,500 to £1,000.
It is also offering 50pc off on a wide range of clothes and footwear and
even aftershave, with free delivery.

The retailer expects “online trade to be busy, especially on Christmas Day” as
the same day last year saw more than 800,000 hits on its website.

Its in-store sale, as with M&S, begins on Boxing Day. John Lewis will not
offer the discounts in-store until the following day.

The store, which had a internet hit with its snowman adverts, said its most
popular products were tablets, such as Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) 's iPad. Its sale will include
up to 50pc off furniture.

Halfords is offering a 'web exclusive' of 10pc off everything until midnight
on Christmas Day as well as clearance prices on bikes, radios and satnavs. A
Garmin Nuvi is reduced from £299.99 to £99.99, plus the additional 10pc off
until tomorrow.

Game also started its 'biggest ever sale' today online. Among computer games,
FIFA 13 was reduced from £44.99 to £35 while the price for Halo 4 was
reduced from £39,99 to £25. On consoles, PlayStation's PS3 12 GBm with The
Amazing Spiderman HD movie was cut to £125, saving £71, but the offer ends
on Friday. Game's in-store sale starts on Boxing Day.

Christmas Day is expected to see even more shoppers go online than today.
Nearly 1.5 million people are expected to log on. Searches for the best
deals are predicted to peak between 1pm and 2pm as most families prepares to
sit down to Christmas dinner, with new owners of iPads, tablets and laptops
hitting the sales, a survey of more than 2,000 adults showed.

Last year, consumers spent £235 million online on Christmas Day alone, a rise
of around 17 per cent on the previous year, and online spend tomorrow is
expected to hit £307 million, forecasts by Experian (Other OTC: EXPGF - news) and IMRG showed.

Amazon.co.uk will begin cutting prices at 9am on Christmas Day, bringing
forward its sale forward a day. It said Christmas Day sales from its website
have more than doubled over the last five years.

Moneysavingexpert said it had heard rumours that Next (Other OTC: NXGPF - news) , which offers one of the
most widely anticipated sales, would start offering 50pc off from Boxing
Day. The website said: 'Previous years' sales have seen all sale items
reduced by 50pc, both online at Next and in-store.'

Sales

• Amazon.co.uk Christmas Day will see clearance offers and
limited-quantity ‘lightning deals’, offering up to 80pc off select Amazon
‘apps’, HD TVs reduced from £230 to £140, and 50pc off items such as desk
lamps.

• John Lewis The clearance sale starts online at 5pm today
(Christmas Eve) offering up to 50pc off thousands of products, including
£1,200 sofa beds reduced to £840, crystal-studded sandals down to £29 from
£99 and a two-seater sofa reduced from £750 to £525.

• Debenhams the largest sale in the store’s 200-year history
started on Saturday with up to 60pc off furniture and beds, up to half price
party dresses and jewellery and up to 50pc off Designers at Debenhams
handbags.

• Harrods the online sale is offering more than 50pc off
selected women’s dresses and men’s jackets, £1,299 silk bedding sets down to
£649 and selected perfumes and fragrances at less than half price.

• Argos the end of catalogue clearance sale is already under
way, with half price offers on hundreds of toys, up to £150 off laptops, and
up to 50pc off large screen TVs.

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